Accidental Death of Odessa

            The Accidental Death of Odessa     12/23/05
           
Her eye is closed and her heart now cold
While mine is all bleeding and torn apart, though it’s beating still
How!
How will You redress the heart?
Will You embrace this sorrow and rock away the pain?

Too short a time for some, too long for others
And for some time just disappears...
And what will come no-one can say
Wail with me today so I don’t harden into stone
We are just dust and water with a borrowed breath in a strange land
And time is a failing concept that I no more understand.

We don’t rue Your gain, it is our sustaining hope,
But for us here, it is a terrible blow

Gray all day with clouds and down comes the rain
As we make all the connections and sag under the details
And with the dark comes the rain pounding and the tears
Thundering through the hours: All of heaven weeping
For what we must bear and carry
Wrap and offer at Christmastime this year
How!
How will You redress the heart?
Will You embrace the sorrow and rock the pain away?

Hardships of the heart; perilous trials
And what we trust to Your impartial hand
What we leave in its nail-scarred palm: This life is sorrow
And God is mystery; and still we must go on

Silent Night. Silent God.
Hold our souls, then
For love is the deepest wound and the most precious gift...
Until our eyes too are transfixed
With the sight of love fulfilled: the greatest gift
And no more with salty tears.